Thinking of tinting your car windows? Texas laws might get you in a bind.
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Were booming subwoofers and dark windows a trend when you were in high school? It’s these two upgrades that seem to be where the interests of car aficionados and teenagers overlap. But there is a legal limit in Texas to how dark your vehicle window tint can be – you want to be able to see the road at night, after all.
While some states have varying rules for different types of vehicles, Texas keeps things simple – the same rules apply to sedans, hatchbacks, SUVs and trucks. Really, the only folks exempt from these rules are police or law enforcement, vehicles used for medical reasons or certain passenger vehicles (think limousines, taxis or buses).
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So, before you go darkening those windows to keep that notoriously bright Texas sun at bay, here’s what you should know.
What is the legal window tint limit in Texas?
The Texas Department of Public Safety is pretty clear about window tinting laws. Windshields and front-row side windows should allow more light to pass through than a pair of average sunglasses. Basically, a quarter of all light beams that hit these windows should pass through. Every window behind the driver’s seat row, however, can be as dark as you’d like so long as you have two sideview mirrors that allow you to see at least 200 feet from the back of your car.
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“You can tint your windshield, but there are strict rules in Texas about how much and where,” Tipton Ford Brownsville says. “You’re allowed to have a strip of tint along the top of the windshield, as long as it doesn’t go below the AS-1 line or extend more than five inches down.”
If you’ve never heard of an AS-1 line, you’ve probably seen one. It’s the little strip of darker glass at the top of the windshields of most modern vehicles. Often, it’s got a gradient that fades into a more clear glass below. So, no matter how you spin it, you can’t tint your entire windshield in Texas. But that’s probably for the best.
How dark can your windows be in Texas?
The laws around window tint in Texas center around Visible Light Transmission (VLT). It’s measured in percentages that explain how much light passes through a transparent, or semitransparent, surface. In Texas, front windows can’t have a tint that has a VLT value of 25% or less. That means just more than a quarter of all light must pass through your tinted windows.
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You also can’t have a tint that has a luminous reflectance value of 25% or less. That measurement gauges how much visible light a surface reflects. Essentially, your windshield shouldn’t look black from the inside or out.
What happens if your window tint is too dark in Texas?
It used to be that illegally tinted windows would automatically fail an inspection – the most common way Texans would get caught. However, an officer can stop you at any time if they believe your windows are tinted darker than legally allowed. And it’ll cost you anywhere from $20 to $275 plus the cost of removal and replacement – not a cheap endeavor.
According to the Ford dealership in Brownsville, a first offense for over tinted windows will cost you between $20 and $25 and a misdemeanor charge. Often, an officer will give a first-time offender the chance to have it fixed before their court hearing, leading a judge to dismiss the case.
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However, a second offense comes with a heftier price tag.
“A second ticket, including court costs, could run you up to $275. The fines might keep increasing with each violation. It’s not just about the money either; there’s also the hassle of removing or replacing the tint and getting your car inspected again,” Tipton Ford Brownsville notes.
And having tint put on alone in San Antonio can run you anywhere from $150 to $800, depending on the quality of tint and type of vehicle you’re sporting. And for any shop that put on illegal tint, they can be slapped with a misdemeanor and fined $1,000, according to Texas Transportation Code § 547.613.